In Henry I.'s time the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal was paid 5_s._ a day, and received a "livery" of provisions, a pint and a half of claret, one "gross wax-light" and forty candle-ends. The Chancellor's perquisites used always to include a liberal supply of wine from the King's vineyards in Gascony. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, he received a salary of £19,000; but Lord Eldon, in 1813, gave up £5000 of this to the Vice-Chancellor, and for a long time the Woolsack was worth £14,000 a year. A modern Chancellor's salary is £10,000--£5000 as Lord Chancellor, and £5000 as Speaker of the House of Lords--and he is further entitled to a pension of half that amount on retirement. The extensive patronage that attaches to the office adds much to its importance. The Chancellor recommends the appointment of all judges of the High Court and Court of Appeal, and is empowered to appoint or remove County Court judges and Justices of the Peace. He also has the gift of all Crown livings of £20 or under, according to the valuation made in Henry VIII.'s reign, and of many other places.[179] One of his perquisites is the Great Seal, which, when "broken up," becomes the property of the reigning Chancellor. The breaking up of the Great Seal is a simple ceremony which inflicts no actual damage upon the article itself. Whenever a new Great Seal is adopted, at the beginning of a new reign, on a change of the royal arms, or when the old Seal is worn out, the sovereign gives the latter a playful tap with a hammer, and it is then considered to be useless, and becomes the property of the Lord Chancellor. On the accession of William IV. a dispute arose between Lord Lyndhurst and Lord Brougham as to who should possess the old Seal. The former had been Chancellor when the order was made for the engraving of the new Seal; the latter had occupied the Woolsack when the new Seal was finished and ordered to be put into use. The King, to whom the question was referred, decided, with truly Solomonian sagacity, that the Seal should be divided between the two Chancellors.[180] [179] Lord Eldon, who dearly loved a joke, wrote as follows to his friend, Dr. Fisher, of the Charter House, who had applied to him for a piece of preferment then vacant-- "DEAR FISHER, "I cannot, to-day, give you the preferment for which you ask. "I remain, your sincere friend, "ELDON. "_Turn over._" (On the other side of the page he added) "I gave it to you yesterday." "Life of Eldon," vol. ii. p. 612. [180] The same difficulty arose in 1878, when Queen Victoria solved it by following the precedent set in 1831, and divided the Seal between Lord Cairns and his predecessor.